An unholy trinity or just a seedy threesome: Trump, Musk and Putin? - Trump thread #138

[Spandauer]

With a side order of Vance, Zuckerberg and Netanyahu.*
(*Other flavours are available)

Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible.
George Orwell

Previous thread:
https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5258416-trumpmusk-folie-a-deux-trump-thread-137

The set up was the excuse to cut Ukraine off, as ordered by Putin

Acc to Bluesky a rep from TASS was at the Zallensky ambush

We are truly in the upside down

Now fully caught up on the news after being out for the evening. What an unholy mess.

So Trump just blew up the whole minerals in exchange for security process and has now blithely flown off back to fucking Mar a Lago to play golf and strut around his tacky resort like fucking Caligula all weekend.

According to the news report I just watched, Zelenskyy had pushed for the meeting which surprised me - it seemed too soon after Trump's "dictator/Ukraine started the war" comments from only last week. Also reported some musings that Trump - but more particularly Vance - had agreed to set Zelenskyy up to be verbally attacked in order to show him in a bad light.

And I'm guessing he never asked Musk that

Well, that's another dubious chance of the Nobel Peace Prize down the shitter for Scrotus. The fact that Obama won it and he hasn't has been stuck in his craw since, when, 2015?

"The set up was the excuse to cut Ukraine off, as ordered by Putin"

@Donttellempike That had not occurred to me. But does make sense. It probably would have occurred to Zelenskyy though. But what could he have done? To refuse to go to the WH would have been taken 'negatively'. I guess it was better 'on the world stage' to be seen as having tried, even if he knew it was pre-destined to fail.

The DSR podcast have done an episode breaking down the shit show yesterday and it’s impact, well worth a listen. It’s with Doug Lute (ex US ambassador to NATO), Rosa Brooks of Georgetown University and Mark Polymeropolous (retired senior intelligence officer in the CIA).

Short version is it’s a shit show and irreparable. Made worse by the fact they all consider it to have been intentional.

Yes, I think Zelenskyy was set up by Vance and Trump. How dare they both lay into him like they did.. As for the suit, what an insult with Vance falling around laughing at the question, how far the US has fallen and how Zelenskyy kept his cool I do not know.

If there's any encouragement, I have seen a list of all the EU and other countries who have offered supportive statements to Zelenskyy since this shitshow of a press conference. And it's a lot. Even Portugal and Norway who rarely comment. The only one outstanding is of course Orban and Hungary, a Russian ally.

TRIP and TRIP US both came to the same conclusion - it was an ambush to either try and force Zelenskyy to capitulate or to blow up the talks altogether.

On TRIP US Katty Kay said some Washington insiders told her that Zelenskyy offered the Obama administration a similar minerals deal after the annexation of Crimea in exchange for security guarantees. However when they investigated it they concluded that a) there was not enough evidence that the amount of minerals first thought were even there and b) that they were incredibly inaccessible and it could cost more to mine than they were worth. She postulated that perhaps the Trump administration had come across these reports and decided to blow up the talks to try and save face after making such a big deal about it.

That all said, tomorrow’s summit is now critical. Someone needs to come out of the European Leadership pack and organise. I don’t know if Kier Starmer is the right person as I think he’s trying to position himself as the go between for US/EU relations, but Macron is in too weak a position in his own country and may not even be around much longer himself.

Whether it even needs to be an actual leader I don’t know, a former leader could I suppose take on the day to day organisation and general herding of cats that will need to take place. I’ll bet Blair has already put his hand up!

About the support for Zelensky by European leaders - I can't find anything from Starmer. Did I miss something, or does he not count as European since Brexit?

• European Union chiefs Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa assured Zelenskyy that he was “never alone”. “Be strong, be brave, be fearless,” wrote the European commission and council presidents in a joint statement on social media, telling Zelensky: “We will continue working with you for a just and lasting peace.”
• Emmanuel Macron said Russia was the “aggressor” in the war and “we were all right to help Ukraine and sanction Russia three years ago and to continue to do so”. The French president went further to say that “if anyone is playing at world war three, it’s Vladimir Putin”, referring to Trump’s accusations against Zelenskyy.
• Germany’s likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, assured his support to Zelenskyy, saying: “We must never confuse the aggressor and the victim in this terrible war.” Outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz also voiced support for Ukraine, as did foreign minister Annalena Baerbock, who added that Kyiv’s “quest for peace and security is ours”.

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni called for the US, Europe and their allies to gather over the Ukraine war. “A summit without delay is needed... to talk frankly about how we intend to tackle today’s major challenges, starting with Ukraine.” “Dutch support for Ukraine remains undiminished. Especially now,” prime minister Dick Schoof said on X, adding that “we want lasting peace and an end to the war of aggression that Russia has started”. Poland also reassured Kyiv. “Dear Ukrainian friends, you are not alone,” prime minister Donald Tusk said on X in a post addressed to Zelenskyy. Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez said his country would stand by Kyiv. “Ukraine, Spain stands with you,” he said on X.

• Keir Starmer vowed “unwavering support” for Kyiv. The British prime minister “is doing all he can to find a path forward to a lasting peace based on sovereignty and security for Ukraine”, a Downing Street spokesperson

Yes, he has put out a statement.

"He retains unwavering support for Ukraine, and is doing all he can to find a path forward to a lasting peace based on sovereignty and security for Ukraine."

I read yesterday that Starmer immediately called Zelenskyy to offer support.

As I said, I think Starmer is trying to position himself as the go between, perhaps this was the plan all along - play up Donald’s Scottish roots and love of the monarchy to keep him sweet, emphasise that the UK is no longer part of the EU so that in the Orange One’s brain cell he sees us as a valid third party.

I had heard doubts about the extent of Ukraine’s mineral wealth too.

Time for a depressing check in:

Day 40 of Trump 2.0
612 days till Midterms (03/11/2026)
1,347 days till the 2028 election (07/11/2028)
1,421 days till Inauguration Day (20/01/2029)

<big sigh>

Thank you so much to everyone for telling me what Keir Starmer said, I must admit, I was a bit worried for a moment!
Occupy Democrats have come up with a transcript of Zelensky's post White House meeting interview on Fox News. I hope you can read the screenshots, I wasn't able to find a transcript anywhere else, though here is a link to the interview as shown on CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/02/28/politics/video/zelensky-asked-about-apology-trump-meeting-fox-intv-digvid
Also, can you imagine Trump or Vance going on Ukraine TV and speaking in fluent Ukranian like that? (Or any other non-English-speaking country, for that matter?)

I've also heard doubts about it, strange how can I a middle aged mum in the home counties know more about suspect mineral mines

in Ukraine than top level USA administration?

Does anyone think it's the excuse to get USA in there as a discreet backstop.
Trump sells it to putin as the deal he's got to have his deal and get his money back but really it's an excuse to get USA assets in to defend and protect if necessary.

In addition to the doubts about the mineral reserves in general, apparently the larger deposits are in the Russia-occupied areas. Why on earth would Vlad want those areas <head tilt>? I mean it’s all about the people right?

Anyway, let’s see what tomorrow’s summit brings. A glimmer of light I hope.

I have to say I take great comfort in the fact that I and my country is (currently) on the right side of history in this.

Maybe we UKians can revisit some sort of boycott call. Swerve McDonalds, Starbucks, Amazon etc one day a week ?

One day a week won't be much. I'll just order Amazon another day.
This is so difficult - I still haven't managed to organise my Terfy and China boycotts successfully.

You can be ambitious or you can be effective. Much easier to persuade folks to do a "No Trump Day" in a week - every week - than give up the lovely.

It also reflects the fact that all the consumer boycotts in the world mean nothing whilst billions are being shovelled by our own government and big businesses into buying from Oracle, Microsoft, Amazon and Google.

I can't find this. Where is it please?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3vw9p5lw5xo.amp

Everywhere! In all the news reports if you Google it 😊